Court denies Leila’s plea to attend son’s graduation

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) yesterday junked the motion for reconsideration (MR) of detained Sen. Leila de Lima to attend her son’s graduation rites tomorrow. De Lima’s lawyer Boni Tacardon told The

STAR that Judge Amelia Fabros-Corpuz of Branch 205 verbally rejected their appeal yesterday morning.

Asked about the court’s grounds in denying their motion, Tacardon told The STAR Fabros-Corpuz told them that she is “inclined to deny the MR,” which she will issue later.

De Lima filed the motion for reconsideration on May 29, a few days after FabrosCorpuz denied her motion seeking a furlough to attend her son’s graduation ceremony at a law school in Alabang.

She said that the court’s grounds to deny her furlough were purely “speculations and unfounded fears.”

De Lima also noted that the Sandiganbayan allowed former senator Jinggoy Estrada to attend his son’s high school graduation in 2015.

In Fabros-Corpuz’s three-page order dated May 25, the judge cited the prosecution’s argument and said De Lima would disrupt the ceremony and “endanger the security of San Beda College-Alabang and its constituents.”

The judge also said De Lima “cannot be given a different treatment as that of other prisoners whose liberty is curtailed, pending the final resolution of their criminal cases.”

Aside from Branch 205, De Lima also filed a motion for furlough before Judge Lorna Navarro-Domingo of Branch 206. There was still no decision as of yesterday afternoon.

Tacardon said Navarro-Domingo’s decision would be rendered moot because of Fabros-Corpuz’s decision barring his client from leaving the Philippine National Police Custodial Center.

De Lima is on trial for drug charges in connection with the proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison during her term as justice secretary.